Realities about Iran; the Empire Threatens War

A new type of map shows the brute reality about Iran that is carefully hidden by the imperialist Corporate and State media. Please have a look - click on it for a more detailed view. In this map, countries are identified with small letters, while "insignificant" specific locations are noted with large lettering. All those specific locations marked with a STAR on the map are US military bases. They have Iran entirely surrounded.

The "Man of Peace", US President Obama, who in 2009 received the Nobel Peace Prize only 12 days after being in office, has since then proceeded to focus an unprecedented array of aggressive military, political and financial forces against Iran, creating a situation that is pregnant with the possibility of nuclear war.

Constant provocations by Israel and the Western European nuclear and financial powers, and a recent escalation with commercial "sanctions" have increased the possibility of war to the point that many believe it is now imminent.

Even Fidel has been ringing the alarm. In a very recent article he wrote:

"I am sure that no rash action on the part of Iran can be expected which could contribute to the outbreak of war. If such a war should break out, it will only be as a result of the yankee empire’s congenital adventurism and irresponsibility.

I, for one, think that the political situation created around Iran and the resultant danger of nuclear war involving everyone – those possessing such weapons and those who don’t – is extremely delicate because it threatens the very existence of our species. The Middle East has become the most conflictive region in the world and is the area where energy resources vital to the world economy are produced." [1]

The pretext currently being used for aggression and threats against Iran is the country's nuclear industry, which Iran has repeatedly affirmed is aimed only for peaceful applications, while the US accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

What is the truth?

The truth is that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a global body of the United Nations tasked with inspecting the nuclear facilities of all countries, has been inspecting Iran's facilities on-site, interviewing scientists, combining local and global intelligence and observation data, and issuing regular reports about Iran's nuclear industry: it is clear that so far it has NOT found any evidence of military applications within Iran's nuclear projects. A careful reading of its most recent official report, when the provocative innuendos and rhetoric are removed, shows clearly to the intelligent reader that there has been NOTHING found to prove that Iran is developing nuclear weapons - please study the report right here:

"Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran"

Does Iran want nuclear weapons? President Ahmadinejad has declared: "We do not need an atomic bomb. The Iranian nation is wise. It won't build two atomic bombs while you have 20,000 warheads." Also, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who reportedly has issued a fatwa (religious decree) some time ago against nuclear weapons, has said: "We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons." [2]

The global Peace and anti-war movement has been very concerned for many years about the possibility of an imperialist war against Iran. Any attack, either directly or by proxy, against the country of 75 million people will detonate untold destruction and suffering. IndyMedia Collectives globally and locally, have been part of the global effort to prevent such a war from breaking out.

At a previous period when the danger of military strikes against Iran by the US and Israel had peaked in a similar way as today, global IndyMedia published an article which, by our estimation, was a major contributor to arming the anti-war community with information and rational arguments, enabling resistance to the war within the Western imperialist countries to unfold with more confidence and moral superiority. That article, short, but densely packed with links to crucial information, is here. And it is still very valid:

US/Israel plan nuclear attack on Iran to control oil and defend the dollar [3]

That article prompted a number of responses; among them was a comment by an anonymous reader that included the image reproduced here with the caption:

"artist's impression of mini-nuke safe for civilians in Iran".

Is Iran already under covert attack?

This is a valid concern that is already being explored by security analysts and global conflict observers. A trail of assassinations launched against Iranian nuclear scientists (four murdered so far), a complex computer virus attack (Stuxnet) and a lethal explosion at a munitions base outside of Tehran (seventeen people killed) are an easy to discern pattern: State-sponsored terrorism against Iran by its enemies is the only credible explanation so far. Please read a short report on this here:

We have, of course, many concerns about nuclear power spreading to one more country in the world. Even though we agree that as a sovereign country Iran has every right from the legal point of view to pursue energy production through nuclear power, and even nuclear weapons if it chooses, we oppose nuclear power in ALL countries. We would prefer to see Iran turn its back on nuclear power as Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Spain did recently in response to the growing power of the worldwide antinuclear movement, joining Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Norway, all of which are countries openly opposed to nuclear power. [4]

Nevertheless, our opposition to nuclear power in Iran and elsewhere can NOT be a platform from which to draw support for military aggression against the people of Iran.

We also have concerns about the quality of democratic institutions within Iran, including the degree to which freedom and equality for women, religious, ethnic and sexual minorities, freedom of the press and the unions exist (or not) in Iran. We stand in alliance with the people of Iran in all their struggles for expanding and deepening those freedoms toward a more open, democratic and participatory society.

One point often used by Imperialist propagandists - as part of the ideological package used to "justify" war against Iran - is that the Government of Iran supposedly suppresses the Jewish community of the country. These claims are often linked to the Iranian Government's well known opposition to Zionism. On this question we greatly value the opinion and stance of the Rabbis of Neturei Karta, an Orthodox Hebrew religious group that takes a very critical stance against Zionism on the very basis of Hebrew faith and theology itself. [5]

We'd like to invite you to watch a short video - six and a half minutes long - documenting the historical meeting between the Rabbis and Iran's President Ahmadinejad during his visit to the United Nations, at which the Rabbis presented a gift to the President in "gratitude for the sweetness and love you have extended to Jews and to all mankind". Please click on the image or the link below:

There needs to be found a way to stop and reverse the current escalation toward war. We believe that encounters like the one chronicled above can build for Peace, reconciliation and security; actions of citizen-ambassadors can build toward a global democratic community of all peoples, whereas threats, "sanctions", blockades, assassinations and sabotage can only degenerate into all-out war and slaughter.

The Peace and antiwar movement within the countries of the West, and especially within the United States, is uniquely positioned in a situation where it can derail the ruling class plan for war. In order to fulfill that mission it needs to enrich itself with knowledge about the reality concerning Iran and to find meaningful - and effective - means to resist the downhill slide toward war.

The Imperialist pretext of "exporting democracy" or exporting "antinuclear ecology" to Iran by guns and bombs is unacceptable. Every single shred of such propaganda must be exposed and opposed for what it is.

War is not "inevitable" just as nuclear power is not inevitable. Real movements by real people can - and do - achieve victories against the Machine when people are united, inspired and co-ordinated.

If the Peace movement in the West fails again, as it did in opposing the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the people of the Middle East will have no other choice again but to oppose the United States and its vampire allies - in the words of Malcolm X - by any means necessary. At this point, the people of Kurdistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen are forced by circumstances into a protracted people's war against the Empire, which they have no other option but to resist with arms - which they posess in very small numbers - and just plain determination and heroism fueled by a sense of justice and a love of freedom, qualities of which they are possessed in great abundance.

But as long as the Peace and antiwar movement in the West remains largely ineffectual the slaughter will continue to be one-sided, and if the US and Israel have an opportunity to attack Iran the slaughter in the Middle East will escalate to degrees impossible to calculate.

Fidel has written extensively about Israel's illegal nuclear weapons and the threat to peace. Please examine these recent articles:

"Very few people in the world, except for a handful of thinkers and scientists, have realized and are warning that the explosion of 100 strategic nuclear weapons would be enough to end human existence on the planet. The vast majority would have an end as inexorable as it would be horrific, as a consequence of the nuclear winter which would be generated.

The number of countries which possess nuclear weapons at this moment has risen to eight. Five of them are members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. India and Pakistan acquired the nature of countries possessing nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998, respectively. The seven countries mentioned acknowledge that nature.

On the other hand, Israel has never acknowledged its nature as a nuclear country. Nevertheless, it is calculated that it possesses 200 to 500 weapons of this type, without that being acknowledged at a time when the world is concerned about the extremely grave problems that would be provoked by the outbreak of a war in the region where a large part of the energy which moves the planet’s industry and agriculture is produced.

It is thanks to the possession of weapons of mass destruction that Israel has been able to fulfill its role as the instrument of imperialism and colonialism in that region of the Middle East."

"The Middle East is on the verge of a nuclear war triggered by a US attack on Iran in the name of preventing the country from developing its own weapons, according to ageing Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

"To do this on the basis of a calculation that the Iranians are going to come running out to ask the Yankees for forgiveness is absurd," Castro said. "They [the US] will encounter a terrible resistance that will spread the conflict that cannot end up any other way than turning nuclear."

[3]. The article was mostly woven together by Boud, a global IndyMedia volunteer and member of the Editorial group for the global IndyMedia website. The proposal to publish it triggered many weeks of arguments, including real refinements, purported "refinements", objections, blocks, efforts to delete it, etc, that manifested the political weakness of our global editorial process. On the whole though, the democratic process prevailed, and the article was able to be published, even though with significant delays. More about that on our archives; please check the archives of February and March of 2006, here: